Zeckendorf Towers

Zeckendorf Towers
Zeckendorf Towers in 2008
General information
Type	Residential
Location	Union Square, Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates	40°44′04″N 73°59′22″W / 40.734550°N 73.98950°W / 40.734550; -73.98950Coordinates: 40°44′04″N 73°59′22″W / 40.734550°N 73.98950°W / 40.734550; -73.98950
Completed	1987
Height
Roof	89.38 m
Technical details
Floor count	29
Design and construction
Architect	Davis, Brody & Associates
Developer	William Zeckendorf, Jr. Abraham Hirschfeld Irwin Ackerman

The Zeckendorf Towers building, sometimes also called One Irving Place and One Union Square East, is an 89 m-tall (292 ft), 29-story, four-towered condominium enclave on the eastern side of Union Square, Manhattan, in New York City. Completed in 1987, the building is located on the former site of the bargain-priced department store S. Klein. Designed by architectural firm Davis, Brody & Associates, and named in honor of prominent American real estate developer William Zeckendorf, it was one of New York City's most important development projects of the 1980s.

The towers are clad in red brick and the window frames are arranged to give vertical accents, while the fifth and top floors of the office portion of the base have arched windows. The top of the 29-story towers are each capped with screens in the forms of pyramids that are illuminated at night providing a notable contrast to the illuminated clocktower of the Con Ed Building just across Irving Place.

The 14,000 square feet of outdoor space on the building's seventh floor, formerly an undistinguished rooftop filled with potted plants, make up the largest residential green roof in New York. The roof was transformed in 2010 as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's NYC Green Infrastructure campaign. The planted roof also serves to capture some of the rain that falls on it rather than letting it run off and contribute to flooding in the Union Square subway station below it (on the 4 5 6 <6> L N Q R W trains).